KLAMMING UP

Linux may not be as virus-ready as Windows, but who wants to harbor pointless malware? Now you can hunt for viruses with KDE's KlamAV, a desktop front-end for the ClamAV Open Source virus protection system.

If you receive email and download files from untrusted sources, your computer can end up as a repository for malware. Although very few of these harmful payloads can actually damage a Linux system, these malevolent programs are still unnecessary, and, in some cases, you may run the risk of passing them on to Windows colleagues. It makes sense, therefore, to implement some form of virus protection. One of the great success stories of Open Source software is ClamAV, a signature-based virus filter for mail gateways originated by Tomasz Kojm and now supported by a growing community and a world-class update infrastructure. The goal of KlamAV is to bring the superb ClamAV virus detection system to the KDE desktop.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, they say, but it could just as easily be an ingredient that isn’t part of the recipe. If you can’t reduce the number of cooks, you have to take other steps to make your broth more edible.